On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

Ian and I have been out of the campaign loop the past few weeks. We have done what we can but many other things have been happening to take up our time. Changed days from when we were at the centre of everything! We are literally, as I write this, just back from a few days in Dublin. We planned this visit a year ago as we were alerted to the celebrations that were taking part to commemorate the Easter Rising of 1916. We naturally assumed that the real celebrations were to be on the exact date as this fell on the same Sunday asRead More →

On:
In: Political News

TRADE UNION GIANT RELEASES LEGAL OPINION ON EU REFERENDUM MEP ALYN SMITH AND CHRISTINA MCKELVIE HIGHLIGHT EU ROLE IN WORKERS’ RIGHTS Alyn Smith MEP and the SNP’s Christina McKelvie have highlighted an independent legal opinion commissioned by the Trade Union Council (TUC) that lists the workers’ rights most at risk in the event of Brexit. Michael Ford QC’s legal opinion suggests that, based on past history and extant policy documents, the rights most vulnerable to repeal are limits on working hours, protections for agency and part-time workers, and the right to collective consultation, including the right for workers’ representatives to be consulted if major changesRead More →

On:
In: Political News

We will make our education system one of the best in the world with equal opportunities for all of our children. We will – •    Expand early education and childcare to 30 hours per week – this will require, by the end of the par-liament, additional investment of £500 million per year by 2021, 600 new childcare centres and 20,000 new childcare staff. •    Invest £750 million in raising attainment for all – targeting school funding where it is needed, and put-ting more resources in the hands of individual schools including £500m raised directly from local taxa-tion for investment in schools. •    Implement the NationalRead More →

On:
In: Maureen Forbes

With the dissolution of the Scottish Parliament on March 23 2016 came the retiral of our constituency MSP, Rob Gibson. Rob had been constituency MSP for Caithness, Sutherland & Ross since 2011 when he took the title from LibDem Jamie Stone and had been list MSP for the Highlands and Islands for eight years before that. For a constituency, indeed a region, that had been forever Liberal in all their guises, this was no mean feat and was the beginning of the changes that we would see throughout the country several years later. A long time SNP activist, he has devoted much of his lifeRead More →

On:
In: Stephen Bird

Debt. It’s been a fairly topical subject in recent weeks. With The Hootsmon, revealing on March 10 that Scotland currently would have a “black hole of £15 billion”. And  on March 24 revealed that it would have been only £10 billion on March 24 if we had voted YES instead of NO on Black Thursday! So, that means according to the voice of Unionism, that Scotland has lost another £5 billion (£5,000,000,000) by staying with the “delights” of London’s Tory austerity agenda in just 18 months. But, debt, real or imagined, has been on my mind for another reason as well! I had a conversationRead More →

On:
In: Guest Blogger

by Steve Daley Scotland’s economy is strong with certain sectors such as the construction sector outperforming the rest of the UK. However Scotland’s economy recently has been slowing for the last two consecutive quarters. Tourism is a huge part of Scotland’s economy with an expenditure of nearly of nearly £5 billion and with 40 percent of that coming from oversea students It has been noted numerous times how British Air Passenger Duty (APD) is the most expensive air passenger tax in the world with only five other European countries using this regressive tax.  With APD being devolved to the Scottish Parliament, it is no surpriseRead More →

On:
In: Margaret Hamilton

So, this past week has seen all the parties state what they would do about local tax if they are in government after May 5th, or did they? Ruth Davidson’s Tories don’t seem to have said anything except that it would be bad not to give those in the 40p tax bracket the added £2000 to limit where starting to pay the 40p begins. From what I can see the SNP are only going to raise that threshold by £387, the rate of inflation. By sticking with what the Tory chancellor has announced, Ruth would lose Scotland an income of £120 million in the nextRead More →

On:
In: Clare Adamson

Young people in North Lanarkshire, eligible to vote for the first time, have been denied direct access to Scotland’s First Minister in a bizarre move by Labour run North Lanarkshire Council.   In denying our young people the chance to attend the question and answer event the Labour party has moved beyond desperation to hysteria.   This was not a ‘rally’ as the ill-informed Cllr Frank McNally suggests but an event, hosted alongside youth organisation Young Scot, for young people to engage with the First Minister in a question and answer session. It is similar to other such events previously held.  A diverse group ofRead More →

On:
In: Political News

The Scottish Government is the most trusted government in the European Union, new analysis has shown. Earlier this week, the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey found that 73 per cent of respondents trust the Scottish Government – compared to only 23 per cent who trust the UK Government. When compared to a study of trust in national governments across the EU, analysis shows that the Scottish Government is the most trusted in Europe – with significantly higher trust levels than the nearest challengers in Finland and Denmark, who trail behind Scotland at 60% and 55% respectively. The study also shows that trust in the Scottish GovernmentRead More →